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Tuesday, December 24, 2013

What am I going to do when I actually finish this nativity? Seriously. It has crept into the Christmas making just about every year since 2009. I was able to make Mary, baby Jesus, and a shepherd that first year. Realizing how awkward that was to have no Joseph to make the Holy Family complete, I was able to get him finished up for 2010's Christmas season. I fell down on the job in 2011, I guess, and it took another full year after that for 1 wise man to show up in 2012.

What happened in 2013? Did I actually just finish the whole thing so we could finally move this project from the UFO pile to the . . . well . . . there is no "completed projects" pile . . . so . . . um . . . blah blah blah. You get the idea. ANYHOO. I was able to finish 1 more magi-type this year.

Here's the current group shot for you:

"Dude. Where have you been?"

Sorry 3rd king of the orient. Apparently you're gonna have to wait at least one more year to see the felt newborn king.

Take heart, friend. We're all waiting for Jesus to come back.

Merry Christmas!

P.S. I wanted to include a closer look at the Holy Family here so you could see how the cheapo felt sheets I used are starting to pill after several years of the kids playing with them. The kids don't care, but I'm kind of wishing I knew about wool blend felt back when I started this project!

LM's favorite nativity out of the 4 "playable" ones we have is this one because, "It's the only one where Mary can actually hold her baby!"

P.P.S. You could make this project if you want! The pattern is by Bugga Bugs on Etsy. Maybe you'll even get yours done before I do.
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Monday, December 23, 2013

I've been making special ornaments for my kids every year since 2009. It's a tradition I picked up from my mom who did this for my sisters and me when we were young.

Though I've amassed a gajillion ideas on this topic over the last several years, I was still waffling over it for way too long this year. I think I was on inspiration overload. (For anyone that wants to get in on this idea for their own kids/family members there are tons o' free patterns around the web, but I like to give pattern-makers some love . . . especially around the holidays.)

I let the kids pick out their favorites from the offerings. Loftily, I thought maybe I could make all of them and each kid could get 3, but you know . . . that didn't happen. It's ok. One per year is totally adequate, right?

Little Miss picked out this sweet ice skate. This surprised me . . . I thought for sure she would go for the pink reindeer ornament. Her reasoning? "Dad said he is going to take me ice skating this year and I CAN'T WAIT TO GO!!" Makes sense when you put it that way. :)

Kee-ku picked out the snowman. His favorite book right now is Snow by Roy McKie so this was no shock at all. Does anyone else have that book? Seriously, kid is obsessed with it. I pretty much have it memorized at this point.

I held up the picture on the front of the pattern to Kiwi and she pointed to the poinsettia so I went with it. I'm sure she has her reasons. ;)

This is the first time ever I have used wool blend felt for my ornaments. I was gifted some this year by a friend and I have to say, I am a convert. I didn't have all the colors I needed to make these in my wool felt mini stash, so there are a few instances here where I subbed in some of the regular ole eco-felt I have gobs of sitting on my shelf (the sparkly white I used for the snowman for example.) The wool felt really does have such a smooth feel and is so much easier to work with in my opinion. I haven't worried terribly about longevity with the ornaments I have made in the past using the cheap felt sheets . . . considering they are touched once a year and put from a box onto a tree and then back into a box with minimal handling they are all looking the same as they did when they were originally made. Even so, I am really digging the wool blend felt and would like to get some more for future felt-i-licious projects.

Anyone else adding some handmade goodies to your Christmas tree this year? I had a blast making these.

**I've been making my kids special Christmas ornaments for the last few years. Here are the collections so far: